Terrahawks
Terrahawks was a TV series produced by Gerry Anderson and Christopher Burr from 1982-84. The series was made up of 39 episodes which were originally broadcast in the UK in 3 separate 13 episode seasons. This was Gerry Anderson's first time producing a TV show from the ground up since 1958 with A.P. Films. The series was made at Bray studios in Berkshire. Terrahawks focused on the eponymous Earth Defence Squadron known as Terrahawks which was tasked with defending planet Earth from alien threats. The series is notable for it's less dire tone of stories than many of Gerry's post Thunderbirds shows such as Captain Scarlet or UFO. Tounge in Cheek humour was often the mainstay, with headwriter Tony Barwick in particular writing most of the series under pseudonyms that were puns of the name Einstein such as 'L. Inkstein' or 'Tom Katstein'. The series premiered on London Weekend Television but did also get broadcast on ITV Network and Granada Television. It was remarkably popular during it's original run amongst children, the character of Zelda enduring the most in the minds of many due to her scary design. The series was picked up for US networking by Tribune Broadcasting in 1986, who enjoyed similar positive response and were interested in comissioning an additional 35 episodes. Scripts for this planned 4th series included one written by Gerry Anderson titled '101 seed' and one by Tony Barwick called 'Attempted MOIDer', the former seeing the light of day as an episode of the first series of the Big Finish Terrahawks audio revival in 2014. Unfortunately Tribune failed to produce the money needed and after two failed attempts by Gerry to get a Terrahawks spin off into production, one focusing on Stew Dapples and another with just the Zeroids and Cubes, production on Terrahawks finally came to a close at the end of 1986. Due to the series not being an ITC Entertainment product, the series was not rerun after the 80s and today remains a rather obscure series in the Gerry Anderson oeuvre. Plot In 2020, the NASA Mars base was attacked and destroyed by a fleet of alien ships lead by an evil witch-like Android named Zelda from the planet Guk, who set up her base on the newly vacant Mars planet and promptly launched her attacks against earth with her son Yung-Star and her sister Cy-Star at her side. The Terrahawks, an elite fighting force set up in response to a previous alien attack in 2017 stands ready to oppose the terrible alien threat, operating out of Hawknest in South America. Their leader is Dr. 'Tiger' Ninestein, one of nine clones of Professor Gerhard Stein, who commands the entire team consisting of Captain Mary Falconer, Captain Kate Kestrel, Lieutenant Hiro and Lieutenant Hawkeye. There are 5 main vehicles in the organisation; Spacehawk, the space station and first line of defence, Hawkwing , the high velocity attack craft, Battlehawk , the heavy duty transport, Treehawk, the interstellar rocket ship and Terrahawk, the nimble reconissance craft stationed on Battlehawk, with an upgraded 1990s Rolls Royce named HUDSON acting as a civilian transport for the various members of the team. The team also consists of a number of spherical robots known as Zeroids. These were often lead by Sergeant Major Zero, although assisting Hiro in space was Space Sergeant 101. Despite being mechanical, each had their own personality such as 18, who spoke with a French accent and whose name was often mispronounced as "Dicks Hewett", 21 who spoke with a stutter and 55 who constantly rhymed when speaking. Zelda's family often remained on Mars, preferring to send their cabal of Monsters in cryogenic store to attack Earth and the Terrahawks on their behalf. These included Sram who could produce a thunderous roar, MOID whose name was an acronym for Master Of Infinite Disguises, and Yuri the Space Bear. Zelda's answer to the Zeroids were the Cubes who formed the back bone of the android's military might, one of which was kept as a pet by Cy-Star and named 'Pluto'. In the show's third season, the Androids of Mars were joined by a fourth member in the form of Cy-Star's offspring It-Star. Badwater County's Sheriff Cy Bull also featured in a few episodes along with Deputy Kilroy. An audio series of 24 episodes produced by Big Finish Productions was released some 30 years later, which consisted of three separate 8 episode long anthologies. Regular Cast *Dr. Tiger Ninestein - Jeremy Hitchen *Captain Mary Falconer - Denise Bryer *Sergeant Major Zero - Windsor Davies *Captain Kate Kestrel - Anne Ridler (speaking) and Moya Griffiths (singing) *Lieutenant Hiro - Jeremy Hitchen *Lieutenant Hawkeye - Jeremy Hitchen *Space Sergeant 101 - Ben Stevens *HUDSON - Ben Stevens *Zelda - Denise Bryer *Yung-Star - Ben Stevens *Cy-Star - Anne Ridler *Dix-Huit - Ben Stevens *Zeroid 21 - Ben Stevens *Colonel Johnson - Jeremy Hitchen *Stewart 'Stew' Dapples - Ben Stevens *Chic King - Jeremy Hitchen *Zeroid 55 - Ben Stevens *Sram - Ben Stevens *MOID - Ben Stevens *Yuri the Space Bear *Sheriff Cy Bull - Jeremy Hitchen *Deputy Kilroy - Ben Stevens *It-Star - Jeremy Hitchen and Denise Bryer *Dr. Kiljoy - Windsor Davies *Zeroid 13 - Ben Stevens *Lord Tempo - Ben Stevens *Sue Ellen - Anne Ridler Episodes (Production Order) Season One: # Expect The Unexpected Part 1 # Expect The Unexpected Part 2 # Gold # Thunder-Roar # Close Call # From Here To Infinity # Space Samurai # The Sporilla # Happy Madeday # Gunfight At Oaky's Corral # The Ugliest Monster of All # The Gun # Thunder Path Season Two: # Mind Monster # To Catch A Tiger # The Midas Touch # Operation S.A.S. # Ten Top Pop # Unseen Menace # A Christmas Miracle # Midnight Blue # Play It Again, Sram # My Kingdom For A Zeaf # Zero's Finest Hour # The Ultimate Menace # Ma's Monsters Season Three: # Two For The Price Of One # Child's Play # Jolly Roger One # Runaway # First Strike # Terratomb # Doppelganger # Cry UFO # Space Cyclops # Timewarp # Space Giant # Cold Finger # Operation Zero (Broadcast Order) Season One: # Expect The Unexpected Part 1 # Expect The Unexpected Part 2 # Thunder-Roar # Happy Madeday # The Ugliest Monster of All # Close Call # The Gun # Gunfight At Oaky's Corral # Thunder Path # From Here To Infinity # Mind Monster # A Christmas Miracle # To Catch A Tiger Season Two: # Operation S.A.S. # Ten Top Pop # Play It Again, Sram # The Ultimate Menace # Midnight Blue # My Kingdom For A Zeaf # Zero's Finest Hour # Cold Finger # Unseen Menace # Space Giant # Cry UFO # The Midas Touch # Ma's Monsters Season Three: # Two For The Price Of One # First Strike # Terratomb # Space Cyclops # Doppelganger # Child's Play # Jolly Roger One # Space Samurai # Runaway # Timewarp # Operation Zero # The Sporilla # Gold Gallery Gerry Anderson's Terrahawks (1983) - Opening Titles TRH-Dutch-DVD.png|Dutch DVD Trivia *At present there are only 4 episodes of the show which haven't been released in HD; Go(l)d, Thunder Roar, Timewarp and Cold Finger. No film copies of these have surfaced, but It is believed that Fanderson posess 16mm film reels of the episodes in their archives. Category:Terrahawks Category:Television Series Category:Supermacromation Television Series